I think the series fucking rules, but the anime is subpar to the manga, as usual. Viz picked up the rights to the manga, but so far haven't printed anything. Here's a news release about it, along with an Inoue interview (wow, he's met MJ.) Looks like Volume 1 is set to drop on Sept 08.

While I was at Starbuck working on my drafts for Real, a young lady sat down at the table next to me and pulled out from a bookstore bag.... not Real, but SD, and started to read it.

It looked like it was about the game with Sanno. She was sitting there, every once in a while sipping on her straw, intensely focused on reading, while I was sitting less than 1 meter away thinking about the developments for Real Issue #49.

Ignorant bitch didn't even notice the CREATOR was sitting right next to her. I have to say though, that Sannoh game really is very fucking intense, so I don't necessarily blame her for not taking her eyes of the pages .

From Inoue News dated 10.31.08. I just found this totally cool.Ignorant bitch didn't even notice the CREATOR was sitting right next to her. I have to say though, that Sannoh game really is very fucking intense, so I don't necessarily blame her for not taking her eyes of the pages .

Maybe the problem is that Asian people all look alike. No but I agree, I actually think it would be a complement that she didn't notice him. If she got into the story to a degree that prevented her from being aware of her surroundings, that's a sign that both the visuals and story are captivating.

Also if I sat beside Inoue I probably wouldn't recognize him either. I mean I've only seen his face maybe once about 2 years ago when he did that huge painting of Musashi's face( or atleast a similar character).. it's on youtube. I just remember that he looked badass and he had facial hair.

I actually bought the manga and it's pretty cool. Of course I already have read it thanks to scanlations, but I will keep buying as they come out. Definately the Kainan game was pretty good too, and the funny parts at the beginning of the manga.

The Kainan game just kept goooiiing. I own all 31 original volumes, though for a good 5 years, I didn't have any reliable translations. It's one of my favorite series. Right behind Berserk.

As popular as it was in its time, I think it's still underrated. Especially these days, people tend to write it off as "just" a manga series about basketball. It's really about the personal growth of its main character, and learning to become a better human being by fully devoting yourself to a cause. Very similar to Vagabond in that regard.

The Oricon news source has confirmed this weekend that Slam Dunk 10 Days After, the epilogue that manga creator Takehiko Inoue drew for his Slam Dunk basketball manga on a 23 school blackboards, will finally get reprinted this year. Inoue had hinted on his website on January 15 that this story will get a general release after four years. Inoue drew the epilogue to thank his readers for buying 100 million copies of his manga.

Inoue created Slam Dunk 10 Days After at Misaki High School, a school that had closed down in Kanagawa Prefecture just southwest of Tokyo. Inoue drew the manga with chalk on 23 blackboards scattered across the campus. For three days starting on December 3, 2005, over 5,000 fans came to that shuttered high school to see what happened to the Slam Dunk characters 10 days after the main story ended. The epilogue did get reproduced in an issue of Switch magazine (pictured at right), a set of "blackboard cards," and a documentary DVD for the event, but all three have long since sold out. The blackboard card set now goes for 18,199 yen (about US$200) on online secondhand sales.

Inoue serialized the original Slam Dunk manga from 1990 to 1996 in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The story follows Hanamichi Sakuragi, an trouble-making boy who joins his high school basketball team to impress the captain's sister. He gradually gains a passion for the sport and helps his team rise to national glory. The manga spawned a popular animated series and sparked nationwide interest in basketball. Viz Media will publish the second volume of Slam Dunk in North America next month.

Awesome, so THAT's what "Slam Dunk 10 Days After" is. I remember seeing a video of the event on Inoue's website, but it was so fucking cryptic and in Japanese, I never knew the significance of it. Can't wait to read it.

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Viz Media will publish the second volume of Slam Dunk in North America next month.

:golfclap: way to go, Viz. You're only about 10 years late to publish this awesome series.

I found where to read "Slam Dunk 10 days after" online. If it becomes available here in the U.S, soon I'm buying it.

Man, I was actually just looking on Amazon for a way to buy this last weekend, but couldn't find it =(. I do hope that Viz gets this, or somehow bundles it with their Volume 31. I kind of feel sorry for new readers seeing this now, because ... Well, it's pretty pointless unless you've read the series completely.

Bear with me here because I have a lot of things to talk about here, most of which is spoilerific.

Geez, leave it to Inoue to "end" his shounen series on such a bittersweet tune. That's not to say there were any overtly sad moments here. There weren't. Each page had some comedy in it, carrying on Slam Dunk's light sense of humor. But seeing as the context for this followup was a "thanks" to all the support fans have shown the series, the tone Inoue chose to include in these brief pages really left a somber impression with me. Some prime examples of where Inoue took a stab at my Slam Dunk heart:

Akagi had to give up basketball for school, but is now out of sync with life as a result; Sawakita is REALLY heading to America, living out Anzai's former pupil's life, likely to end in failure since he's so young; the dischord in Ryonan's team now that Uozumi has graduated; Sakuragi still in rehab, with a long way to go still before he reaches the court again, and only 3 more years of high school left.

Still, it's been wonderful to experience this, having read the whole series. It's truly a great send-off for Slam Dunk, and the more I read it, the more I think he really will write a sequel someday. He left all the doors open, even after analyzing each team's portrayal here, there are many, many possibilities for development in the future.

As for the drawing above, looking goood. Truly, it's one of the greatest, and most pure moments in the series

One piece of advice, most readers probably won't be hooked on Slam Dunk until several volumes in. Like the main character, you've really got to persevere with the series to see the rewards beyond those first volumes, which are full of Shounen fireworks. I'd say it really starts rolling around volumes 8-9. That's the point when I knew I was in for the full ride. And boy am I glad I stuck around. I think the nearly daily testaments to the series on Inoue's IT Planning forum speak for themselves. It may sound too heavy, but Slam Dunk really has changed people's lives.

Coincidentally, it was also around volumes 8-9 in Vagabond that I became truly hooked.

I think the nearly daily testaments to the series on Inoue's IT Planning forum speak for themselves. It may sound too heavy, but Slam Dunk really has changed people's lives.

Coincidentally, it was also around volumes 8-9 in Vagabond that I became truly hooked.

I can believe it just from reading Vagabond, and I can imagine Slam Dunk being even more pertinent and true to life relatively. As a basketball player/fan myself, I'm extremely curious of the personal effect it's going to have on me. By the same token, part of me is afraid to jump in, or worried about how to go about it. Like, I don't want to go the fan trans, read it in a couple of days, route. I want to read the official translation from Viz, and if they were all out I'd just buy them, but I know going volume to volume, after a few, I'm not going to want to wait for them to finish. =)

The Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government announced this year's winners of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) Art Encouragement Prizes, including the first ever prizes in the Media Arts category, on Friday. This year's winner of the MEXT Art Encouragement Shinjin Prize in the Media Arts category is Takehiko Inoue, the manga creator of Slam Dunk, Vagabond, and REAL.

I was looking at yesasia.com, and I came around the kanzenban of slam dunk that were reassembled around 2001 through 2002. I thought the updated cover art is nice too and is now 24 volumes. I guess you guys have already seen it, but if some haven't here's a sample pic